help with contrast, brighten, tone, ect.......

[Devon Jones]

some times i can get it right on and my pics on mirrors look great sometimes they look horrible. is there any way someone can tell me what i am try'n to do with the pic while doing this? or how they do it i guess i have no expirence with pictures so i have no idea what i am looking for or doing thank you

[Doug Griffith]

Hi Devon,
There are many ways to do what you ask and no general answer is going to cover all situations. Following is a good starting point for grayscale images. Once you get an image that lasers like you want, keep it around along with the laser settings, and refer to it for future images.

In CS3 use Image/Adjustment/Levels

First try the Auto button.

Alternatively, use the eyedroppers in the low right corner to grab the darkest and lightest areas of the image.

From there, use the arrows beneath the upper graph to fine tune the adjustment. Most likely you'll slide the center arrow to the left a bit.

It may also help to slide the bottom Output Levels' left slider to the right to around 15. This will reduce the overall black and help with dot gain produced by the laser.

After doing the above, use the dodge/burn tool (o) to manually fix problem areas. Burn areas that are too light. Dodge areas that are too dark.

From here, I recommend using the Gold Method actions or script found at:
http://www.dogcollarlabor.com/smc/

If you dissect the actions, you'll see what it took to get there.

Cheers,
Doug

[Devon Jones]

thank you doug this pic is kill me

it is a painting of a building that someone did before the building was built and now they want it on a 2ft by 3ft mirror and the sky, sidewalk, and windows are just not coming out as well as i would like. i have attached it just incase you or anyone wants to see it or show me what they would do thanks

i think i am going to remove the sky and the close up trees on the left and right side as well and just make it the building and everything below

[Doug Griffith]

Hi Devon,
I agree that you should remove the sky and tree limbs. I might also smooth out the windows like the attached image. It may look like cr@p as a jpeg but will look more like a smooth surface when laser engraved. Also clean up the driveway with the clone tool.

Cheers,
Doug

[Devon Jones]

thank you i decided today that i was going to edit the entire pic it would not look anything like what they gave me on the pc but 100 times better on mirror thank you very much for your time and help

[Dan Hintz]

Yesterday I did a piece for my SO... a pic of her mother from the late 50's. To get it to come out right, I had to mask off the background and lower the brightness significantly, and adjust the contrast of the rest... otherwise she came out as a ghost. Pictures are rarely laser-ready from the get-go, but I spent no more than 10-15 minutes getting that one ready. A few minutes of masking is worthwhile (and my new tablet helped significantly :) ).